Mini-IPL may be held in UAE or North America

Less than two weeks after announcing their intent to host the Indian Premier League (IPL) overseas, the BCCI has initiated talks with broadcasters Star India. The board, it is learnt, has zeroed in on the United Arab Emirates and North America among the potential destinations and is expected to finalise on one “very soon“.

A source in the know confirmed this to TOI and added that the BCCI is also calling a meeting with its franchises sometime this week to further discuss the league.

Broadcast giants Star were expected to be BCCI’s first choice of preference given Sony Pictures Network India’s (SPNI) stranglehold over the Indian Premier League rights that are already up for renewal. SPNI enjoys a first-rights-of-re fusal clause in its contract with the BCCI and market experts reckon them to retain the lucrative property .

IPL Overseas, or the mini-IPL as it had been termed earlier, can thus be seen as an appeasement of sorts for the party losing out on the bigger IPL rights.

The BCCI plans to discuss its strategy for the first time with the franchises, who happen to be its biggest stakeholders in the league. “They’ll be calling for a meeting soon, probably within the next two weeks,“ a franchise official said.

The IPL Overseas will be slotted in early September, precisely a week after India’s tour of the West Indies gets over.The tournament is a replacement for the T20 Champions League, a tripartite between the Indian cricket board and its Australian and South African counterparts, which was discontinued post the 2014 edition.